Today

Today we had some more cross-cultural training I think. A lady named Smitha was talking to us about how the previous american batches perceived the cultural differences and we shared our own experiences thus far. A lot of it was very interesting, like the Indian Standard Time of always being late. Being an Indian myself I've experience that many times. If you want indians to be on time to a party, you have to tell them to get to the place an hour before the party is supposed to start, and they will get there on time. A lot of it I'm not accustomed to though. There's no concept of a line here sometimes. If you're in line, someone might just cut in the middle like it's normal. We've been told that if you tell them nicely to get to the back of the line they do listen though.

I felt like in today's session though, we were acting like the Indians should be acting like us, and because they weren't we found it weird. I think, especially on this campus, it's easy to forget you're in another country with a different culture. The saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans" applies here as well. Yes there are cultural differences but I think if we approach them with an open mind it should be fine. Also, I feel like some people make the assumption (unknowingly probably) that Globalization == America. In other words, the assumption is that the world revolves around America. I'm sure if you went up to any one of us and asked "Do you think the world revolves around America?" the answer would be "Of course not" but I get the feeling that there is a hint of this idea in some people's minds. Don't get me wrong though, everyone here tries to understand and be open minded, that's why they decided to take this job in the first place.

Like I said before, being an Indian myself I can understand some of these cultural differences. At the same time however, I did grow up in America and that's the culture i'm so used to. So many things here do seem foreign to me as well. It's a weird feeling, going to the country where your entire family and heritage is from and still feeling like an outsider. Although I've been to India before, i'm still amazed at it all. I don't want to act like an outsider because along with the United States, this is also my country. At times though, it can't be helped I suppose. For example, I think it so strange that they don't say hi a lot of times when you say hi to them walking down the street. From their persepective, they haven't been raised that way. Someone saying hi to you on the street is just not what happens here so they aren't accustomed to it. Also the whole standing in line thing shocks me too. We learned that they grow up with a different sense of time than we do. For us things happen sequentially, only when one task ends do we start another. Here it's more fluid, if the guy at the cell phone store is talking to you, it's completely normal for him to interrupt you and serve another customer.

I'm sure if we stay open minded and remind ourselves that we are in another country with different customs, we'll be fine. Who knows we might even get acclimated to the culture and start doing things their way.